There'll Always Be An . . .

THERE’LL ALWAYS BE AN . . .

            “Great Britain” has voted itself out of the European Union.  The “Brexit” side has won a very narrow popular victory.  But things are definitely not settled.

              Of course, England never wanted to be in the European Union to start with.  Winston Churchill wanted an “indissoluble union” with France in 1938—but then the war started.  As a freshman member of the British Parliament Edward Heath made his maiden speech in the House of Commons advocating a European union—and was promoted to a junior cabinet member in Churchill’s post-war government. 

            Europe happened, and eventually Britain joined.  But Britain didn’t sign the Schengen agreement, so Europeans still needed passports to enter Britain.  And when the common currency happened, Britain balked again.  The Queen, the Pound Sterling.  But Elizabeth II is Queen of England, and though English Pounds are worth the same as Pounds from Northern Ireland or Scotland, they aren’t English Pounds.

            Now Britain has voted to secede from the European Union.  Actually, England (except for London and a number of other cities) and most of Wales have voted to secede.  Scotland and Northern Ireland voted against secession, as did London, Gibralter (almost unanimously), Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, York, Oxford, Cambridge, Liverpool, Winchester, Exeter, Cardiff, Newcastle, Brighton--and the Royal Borough of Windsor. 

            The United Kingdom—as a united kingdom—has 65 million people.  England has 53 million—but 9 million of those are Londoners, and the other big cities strongly opposed to “Brexit” hold another 9 million.  Scotland and Northern Ireland have another 7 million.    

            Scotland has announced that it will stay in Europe—and thus disunite the United Kingdom.  There is a movement in Ireland for a referendum on Irish unification—which would take Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom.

            And if Scotland and a united Ireland joined as Celtic nations, they would surely invite the people of Wales to join them—in a Celtic Union.

            And then England would be England.  No more Great Britain.  No more just plain Britain:  the English would be sharing the main British Isle with two foreign—Celtic, not British—states.  

            London’s 9 million are the world’s most diverse population.  And it seems they don’t really want to be British.  Nearly a quarter of them aren’t actually “English,” and more than half of them identify themselves as “Londoners,” not “English.”  Maybe London could become a sort of secular Vatican City (St. Paul’s has long thought itself a rival to St. Peter’s) or a new Luxembourg (London has 14 times as many people as Luxembourg) or a slightly inland version of Hong Kong.

            Why not?  And then the great British Museum, with all its treasures stolen from all around the globe, could become a World Museum:  a glorious monument to world civilization, not imperial plunder.

            Wishful thinking?  Maybe.  But wishing toward decency and civilization.

                                                                                        Bert Hornback